LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



I UNITED STATES OP AMERICA.} 




0^ cL . Jrry/^r/Jy. 



MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 

ON THE 

Life and Charactep^ 

OF 

JOHN EDWARDS LEONARD, 

(A REPRESENTATIVE FROM LOUISIANA), 



DELIVERED IN THE 



HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 18, 1878. 

(J 5 ( ^O^'^'^'^'-^I^'^^ CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION.) 



PUBLISHED BV ORDER OF CONGRESS. 




WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OIFICE. 
1879. 






FORTY-FIFTH CONGRESS, THIRD SESSION. 

Congress of the United States, 
In the House of Representatives, June 23, 1879. 
Resolved by the House of Represetitatives (the Senate concurring), That eight 
thousand copies of the eulogies delivered on the late J. E. LEONARD, a member of 
the Forty-fifth Congress from the State of Louisiana, together with a portrait of 
the deceased, executed under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, be 
printed; six thousand copies thereof for the use of the House of .Representatives 
and two thousand for the use of the Senate. 
Attest : 

GEO. M. ADAMS, Clerk. 



ADDRESSES 



Death of John Edwards Leonard. 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE. 



March 15, 1878. 

The Speaker. The Chair thinks it his duty, and it is a very sad 
one, to present to the House a communication which will now be read 
by the Clerk, which he has received from the State Department. 

The Clerk read as follows : 

Department of State, 
Washington, D. C, March 15, 1878. 
A telegraphic communication has just been received from the United States con- 
sul-general at Havana stating that Hon. JOHN Edwards Leonard, a Representa- 
tive from Louisiana, died this morning of yellow fever. The consul-general states 
that he had ordered his remains to be embalmed, and requests that the family or 
friends of the deceased be informed. He also requests instructions. 

WILLIAM M. EVARTS, 

Seceretary of State. 
Hon. Samuel J. Randall, 

Speaker House of Representatives. 

Mr. Ellis. I am sure, sir, that the announcement which has just 
fallen from your lips will carry sincere regret to every heart which 
beats here, and that to those who knew Judge Leonard well, those 
who had the opportunity to meet him socially, this announcement 
will carry very great sadness. 

It is not my purpose now, sir, to enter into any detailed account of 
his life and public services or to eulogize those shining virtues which 
bound him to those who knew him well, virtues not only of the head 



4 PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE. 

but virtues of the heart. At another and more fitting occasion it 
will be my duty to pay a proper tribute to my deceased colleague, 
and I therefore content myself now by moving that out of respect to 
the memory of Judge Leonard the House do now adjourn. 

The motion was agreed to unanimously; and accordingly (at four 
o'clock and thirty minutes p. m.) the House adjourned. 



March 25, 1879. 

The Speaker. The Chair desires to submit a communication from 
the Secretary of State ; which the Clerk will read- 
The Clerk read as follows : 

Department of State, 

Washington, March 22, 1878. 
Sir : Referring to the previous correspondence in regard lo the death of the 
Hon. John Edwards Leonard, a member of Congress from Louisiana, I have 
now the honor to transmit herewith two copies of a dispatch dated the isth instant, 
which has just been received from the consul-gener.al of the United States at Ha- 
vana, containing the particulars of the illness and death of deceased. I will thank 
you to cause one of the copies of the dispatch to be transmitted to Mr. Leonard's 
father. 

I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, 

WM. M. EVARTS. 
Hon. S. J. Randall, 

Speaker House of Representatives. 

[Inclosure.— Dispatch No. 670, from the consul-general at Havana.] 

United States Consulate-General, 

Havana, March 15, 1S7S. 

Sir : It is with sorrow that I have to announce to the Department the death at 
this place of Hon. John Edwards Leonard, member of the present Congress 
from the State of Louisiana. It occurred at the Hotel Tel^grafo in this city at 
about one o'clock this morning. 

Mr. Leonard arrived here on the 4th instant in the steamer Columbus. He 
had previously advised me of his coming, and of the purely personal char.acter of 
the affairs which had induced him to visit the island at this time. He brought with 
him letters of introduction to several prominent persons of the place, among them 
to General Jovellar. 



PROCEEDINGS IX THE HOUSE. 



On Saturday last, at about noon, he called at the consulate to lake leave of me, 
stating that he had engaged his passage to New York by the steamer Columbus 
(the same in which he had arrived on the 4th), to sail at five p. m. I arranged to 
go on board the steamer and there to talvC leave of him at about that hour. Upon 
meeting him on board he informed me that he learned that, owing to detention in 
the arrival of some freight, the steamer would not leave until the ne.\t (Sunday) 
morning, and that he had decided to go on shore again and spend a few hours 
with his friends. He came ashore with me, and from my house sent a note to a 
Mr. Almagro, who soon called for him, and the two went away together. Mr. 
Almagro informs me that he accompanied Mr. Leonard to the wharf, where they 
took leave of each other ; that Mr. Leonard got into the boat, and that it put off 
in the direction of the steamer. 

It now appears that Mr. LEONARD before reaching the steamer was taken with 
a chill, and imagining that he might become seriously ill, he determined to return 
to the hotel where he had pre\'iously stopped ; he took a room there and did not 
leave it until he was removed after death. It was not until late on Sunday evening 
that I learned that Mr. Leonard had not sailed as proposed, and that he was ill at 
the hotel. I called at once and found him with fever and delirious ; in this state 
he continued during the following day and Tuesday, with only lucid intervals. On 
Wednesday there was to all appearance a marked improvement in his condition : 
he was without fever during most of the day and lucid, but yesterday the symp- 
toms became alarming; still his physicians hoped they would be able to carry him 
over the fifth day, which is usually the critical time in yellow-fever cases ; at about 
midnight his symptoms were decidedly worse, and he sank r.ipidly and uncon- 
sciously for an hour or thereabouts, and then expired. 

It may be a satisfaction to the friends of the deceased to know that he received 
every possible care and the best of medical attendance throughout his sickness. I 
beheve nothing that could contribute to relieve bis sufferings or to save his life 
was left undone or untried. Two physicians were in attendance, one or the 
other constantly. The American physician of the place, Dr. Burgess, watched 
with him during three successive nights, and was present at the time of his death. 
I gave him all the time I could possibly spare from my ofTice. 

This morning I addressed the Department the following telegram : 

Secretary of State, 

Washington : 

John Edwards Leonard, member of Congress from Louisiana, died this 
morning of yellow fever. I have ordered his remains to be embalmed. Please 
advise his family or friends, and request instructions for me. I do not know their 
address. 

To which I have received the following reply: 

Washington, March 15, 187S. 

Pay every respect to Mr. Leonard's memory, and take careful charge of his 
remains. 



SEWARD. 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE. 



The remains have been embalmed by Dr. Burgess. They are placed in a metalhc 
case, and in this condition can be sent without any risk to the United States for 
interment whenever required ; and being confident that his friends will soon re- 
quire them I have arranged to have them deposited temporarily in one of the cem- 
eteries of this city. 

This event has excited the liveliest sympathy among all classes of this commu- 
nity. I may add also, that the death of so prominent a person by yellow fever at 
this season, and in one of the principal hotels of the place, has caused great alarm 
among visitors from the United States, and by the steamers saihng this week many 
persons will leave who otherwise would have remained from two to four weeks 
longer. 

I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

HENRY C. HALL, 

Consul- General. 
Hon. F. W. Seward, 

Assistant Secretary of State, Waskington. 



The Speaker. The communication will be laid upon the table. 
The duplicate which accompanied it has been forwarded by the Chair 
to the father of the late Mr. Leonard, at West Chester, Pennsylvania. 

Mr. Ellis submitted the following concurrent resolution ; which 
was read, considered, and unanimously adopted: 

Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring,). 
That a special joint-committee of six Representatives and three Sen- 
ators be appointed to meet the body of Hon. John Edwards Leon- 
ard, late a Representative of Louisiana, upon its arrival at New 
York, and escort it to the place of interment at West Chester, Penn- 
sylvania. 

Resolved, That the Clerk of the House be directed to communi- 
cate this resolution to the Senate. 

The Speaker subsequently announced as the committee under 
the foregoing resolution : Mr. Ellis of Louisiana, Mr. Muller of 
New York, Mr. Turner of Kentucky, Mr. Stewart of Minnesota, 
Mr. Calkins of Indiana, and Mr. Ward of Pennsylvania. 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE. 



In THE House of Representatives, 
April i8, 1879. 

Mr. Ellis. In accordance with the announcement made, I desire 
now to call up the resolutions in regard to my late colleague, Mr. J. 
Edwards Leonard, and I ask that the resolutions be read. 

The Clerk read the resolutions, as follows : 

Resolved, That this House has learned with deep regret of the 
death of Hon. J. Edwards Leonard, a Representative from the 
State of Louisiana. 

Resolved, That the House do now suspend the consideration of all 
other business, in order to pay appropriate respect to the memory of 
the lamented deceased. 

Resolved, That' in token of regret the members of this House do 
wear the usual badge of mourning for thirty days. 

Resolved, That the Clerk of this House do communicate these res- 
olutions to the Senate of the United States. 

Resolved, That out of respect to the memory of the deceased the 
House do now adjovun. 



;4ddRESS of yW.R. ^LLIS, OF J,OUISIANA. 

Mr. Speaker : Again we are in the midst of one of those solemn 
pauses occasioned by the delivery of the death-blow dealt suddenly 
and swiftly in our midst. Again has the impressive warning come to 
us that " in the midst of life we are in death." 

Scarcely have two moons waxed and waned since John Edwards 
Leonard sat here in our midst, gifted, cultured, of most honorable 
birth, and with highly beating heart and bright anticipations of a 
future wherein illustrious deeds and honors richly won should fill up 
the perfect measure of a useful and an honorable life; to-day he lies 
in the cemetery of his native village, upon one of the green hills of 
Pennsylvania, and though the tender grass is carpeting the mold 



above him, and the returned robin laughs and sings by his grave, 
yet he awakes not to these touches and voices of springing nature. 
The silver cord is loosened, the golden bowl is broken, and they that 
look out of the windows are darkened. 

He left us upon a mission in which there were the most beautiful 
and holy anticipations that can animate the human heart. A beau- 
tiful vision had passed before him, enshrining within herself all that 
he deemed most lovely and beautiful in woman, and had left the 
witchery of love's spell upon his heart. She was a child of the far 
South. She lived on that beautiful island that is so surrounded by 
poetry and by romance, where the very branches of the trees seem 
vocal and laden with music from the songs of the thousand strange, 
bright birds, and where the low-hung lamps of the stars chase away 
the vain shadows of the night, and where winter never comes. He 
went to interweave with his life the beautiful life of this bright crea- 
tion. He left us with anticipations as bright as those stars and with 
love's melody in his heart as sweet as the minstrelsy of the birds. 
The beautiful anticipations are but the memories of a dream. In- 
stead of the bridal wreath, the gay music, and the merry tread of 
feet, mourners go about the streets, and there are the dark habili- 
ments of the grave. He sought a bride and found but the cold em- 
brace of death. 

How mysterious are the councils of Death. How strangely doth 
he select those whom he calls to his silent realms. That which we 
call death we regard as the natural end of a fully completed life. It 
is but natural for the old in years to pass away. Like the full-blown 
leaf that has lived and fluttered away its spring and summer, and 
filled the period of its existence and mission, and falls when autumn 
has draped it in gorgeous funereal robings, like the ripe fruit in its 
season, so the old naturally pass atvay to the realms of the dead. 
But for the young, the gifted, the promising, how sad, how unnat- 
ural, how strange, how mysterious. 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF JOHN EDWARDS I^ONARD. 9 

4 

It is not my purpose to-day, Mr. Speaker, to enter into a detailed 
account of the life of my lamented colleague. The usual biograph- 
ical sketch suitable on occasions of this kind will be voiced by one 
who represents the district where Judge Leonard was bom. It is 
for me as his colleague, as his personal friend (for although we dif- 
fered in politics, his magnanimity, his honesty, his purity of character 
and of soul had won for him my disinterested and devoted friend- 
ship), simply to state what I knew of him since his advent in Loui- 
siana, and my estimation and analysis of his character. 

A few years ago he came there. He came at a time when wrong 
and crime and shame perpetrated by those who claimed affiliation 
with a great political party had rendered the very name of that party 
odious to all the honest people of the State. He was a Republican 
in politics. He was a national Republican, because he believed that 
the principles and the mission of that great party were right. Amid 
all the corruption of those infamous days when stranger greed and 
venal ignorance reigned he moved with hands unstained and with 
unsullied skirts. He came there no "pohtical tramp," no adventurer 
seeking to profit from the spoils of a wronged and outraged people. 
He came there honestly, with his mind cultured, with his fortune, 
with his intellect, and with his honest heart and brave hands to help 
our people to build up their waste places, to make for himself a 
home and friends and a grave among our people. Behind her tears 
he saw that Louisiana could smile. Beyond the dark veil of the 
present he saw the magnificent possibilities of the State. Beyond 
the clouds of sorrow and of suffering he saw the light of better, 
brighter days. He saw that with peace restored, with honest gov- 
ernment again in the grasp of that people, with the right to govern 
themselves once more restored, no poet's dream could outrun the 
magnificent and splendid future of that State. He heard the voice 
of destiny calling to Louisiana from the future. He looked to her 
teeming soil where staples and fruits and flowers sprang so beauti- 



ADDRESS OF MR. ELLIS ON THE 



fully and so naturally as almost to beggar the heathen's dream of the 
garden of the Hesperides. He saw her bright, broad rivers whose 
highways are capable of bearing the argosies of commerce of the 
whole world. He saw her natural situation and advantages ; and he 
knew that there was a great future for that State. He came there 
honestly for the purpose of helping us to achieve that future. 

As I said, no suspicion of dishonesty, no rumor of dishonor, no taint 
of corruption ever coupled him with the bad men, the most infamous 
that ever cursed and blighted a State, nor had he ever part or lot in 
that harpy feast, where the foul Stymphalian birds of politics, with in- 
satiate appetite and noisome wing and horrid croak, gathered to their 
infernal orgies over the spoils of a stricken, helpless, and friendless 
State. No, sir; he was not one of them. He bought real estate, and 
thus identifying himself completely and perfectly with our common- 
wealth, he began the practice of law and coupled with his professional 
duties the labors of the planter. In both he was successful. Coming 
at a time when, as I said, the deeds of those bad men had brought 
the name of the Republican party very low in that State, he, profess- 
ing to be a Republican, was looked upon at first with suspicion and 
coldness. But not long was such the case. The people of that State 
saw that he was honest. They not only saw the polished exterior of 
the gentleman, but they soon learned that he was indeed a gentle- 
man. Friends gathered about him; and clients, regardless of politics, 
intrusted him with their business interests. He was elected common- 
wealth's attorney; and for the term of four years he performed the 
duties of that high station with signal dignity and ability. He was 
appointed to fill a vacancy upon the supreme bench of the State; 
and though his term of service was very brief, yet his opinions in cases 
won for him the respect and confidence of the bench and bar. Soon 
afterward he was nominated by the Republicans for Congress in his 
district, and in November, 1876, was elected, and at the extra session 
in October he took his seat here. 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF JOHN EDWARDS LEONARD. II 

Of his Congressional career, Mr. Speaker, it is needless for me to 
speak now. It is familiar to us all. Suffice it to say that in the very 
opening days of the session, upon some questions of privilege pertain- 
ing to the organization of this House, Judge Leonard made several 
speeches which at once told us that he was a lawyer of ability, a cor- 
rect logician, and an orator of considerable power, and among the 
younger members he at once took high and prominent rank. 

In analyzing Judge Leonard's character, I am struck and impressed 
with the singular absolute honesty of his nature. It was simple, pure, 
unadulterated honesty. It was not that conventional honesty which 
satisfies itself and is satisfied with the mere payment of debts or the 
mere fulfillment of obligations. It went beyond that; it was theoret- 
ical as well as practical honesty. A singular instance of the extreme 
honesty of his nature I recollect now. On one occasion the Speaker 
was absent and had designated my friend from Ohio [Mr. Sayler] 
to occupy the chair. The illustrious gentleman from Georgia [Mr. 
Stephens] had moved some resolution and it was carried by a vote 
of the House. The Speaker, in perfect accordance with parliamentary 
usage, without waiting for the gentleman from Georgia to put the 
motion to reconsider and to lay on the table, as usual anticipated 
that motion and put it and declared it carried. It struck Judge 
Leonard strangely, being unfamiliar with the usage and not finding 
it in the rules; it struck him strangely; it jarred harshly against that 
simple and straightforward honesty of his nature that the Speaker 
' should anticipate and put a motion that was never actually moved 
by any one; and he rose and asked how it was. And when the par- 
liamentary usage was explained to him and he was declared out of 
order, he was yet not satisfied; and when the Speaker of the House 
returned he agam called up the question and again had the usage 
explained. It was not captiousness, it was not a desire to be disa- 
greeable, it was not a desire to make "much ado about nothing" that 
prompted my lamented friend's course in this matter, but the usage 



ADDRESS OF MR. ELLIS ON THE 



appeared in conflict with those simple and direct principles of honesty 
with which his great soul was imbued. 

There was another feature of his character which won for him my 
profoundest friendship— it was his great magnanimity of soul. His 
was a soul great enough to take the circumstances of the birth, of the 
education, of the surroundings of one who differed from him and 
attribute to him perfect honesty and perfect purity of motive. Often 
have I conversed with him about the issues growing out of the late 
war. He was Northern by birth, Northern by education, and most 
sincerely did he sympathize with the cause of the Union during the 
war. Too young to have been in the Army, he had watched with 
boyish enthusiasm and boyish eagerness the great smoke-covered 
fields of battle; and it was natural his heart should beat high and 
his soul be filled with joy and pride when finally, above the dust of 
war, the flag of the Union unfolded the sheen of its stars in the clear 
and perpetual light of victory. And yet I know he was magnanimous 
enough to look at us of the South, to consider the circumstances of 
birth, the circumstances of education, and I know he was honest 
enough to attribute perfect honesty and sincerity and purity of 
motive to us. 

He never abated, indeed, one jot or one tittle of that patriotic dtrty 
which we all owe to our government. Born in a locality which has 
been hallowed by scenes and associations of the Revolution — within 
four miles of the battle-field of Brandywine, where Washington con- 
tended with his undisciplined yeomanry against the steady valor of 
British soldiers ; not far from Valley Forge, where the great heart of 
Pater Patrice broke and bled over the sufferings of his compatriots- 
hearing often in his childhood the tales of those times, living amid 
the scenes where these grand memories marshaled and thronged about 
him, no wonder his soul was imbued with lofty love for his country 
and most beautiful veneration for the great men, the strong men, the 
suffering men who won for us the priceless boon of liberty. 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF JOHN EDWARDS LEONARD. 13 

While he was charitable to the South, while he was charitable to 
the men of the South, he detested those who taught that gospel of 
hate which political apostles seemed never to tire of teaching, and 
his voice was ever for peace and charity and forgiveness. I remem- 
ber well in discussing a speech which had been made, one which 
sought to arouse all this bitterness again, in which the dead were 
dragged from their graves, in which the tears of widows were made 
to flow again and the cries of orphans to be again heard — I remember 
almost his conversation. He said, " Why do not they let these mem- 
ories sleep ? Why cannot men of the North and men of the South 
look at each other in the light of charity, and attribute honesty and 
purity of purpose to each other, evidenced as it was by so much ol 
valor, by so much of sacrifice? For me, I would scorn the people of 
the South if they did not love the memories of their great men, if they 
did not cherish the valor of their great armies." And he said, and 
I never shall forget the feeling and emphasis with which he quoted 
it, " When I stand by graves like Lee's and McPherson's, like Albert 
Sidney Johnson's or Thomas's, I would feel the same spirit upon me 
which animated Scodand's great bard when above two of England's 
proudest graves, the graves of rival statesmen, he sang : 

Drop upon Fox's gr.ive the tear, 
'Twill trickle to his rival's bier ; 
O'er Pitt's the mournful requiem sound, 
And Fox's shall the notes rebound. 

The solemn echo seems to cry, — 
' Here let their discord with them die. 
Speak not for those a separate doom 
Whom fate made brothers in the tomb ; 
But search the land of living men, 
Where wilt thou find their like again ? ' " 

Ah, Mr. Speaker, I would to God that sentiments like these ani- 
mated the breast of every man called to the councils of our com- 
mon country. Judge Leonard has left as a rich legacy this magna- 



14 ADDRESS OF MR. ELLIS ON THE 

nimity of soul, for it was one of the chiefest and greatest features of his 
character. He carried it even in the walks of private life. I remember 
when he went away he was paired with my colleague, Mr. Acklen. He 
was detained longer than he anticipated, and while in Cuba he be- 
thought him that he was perhaps interfering with the discharge of Mr. 
Acklen's duties and holding him to the pair too long; and in the very 
last letter he ever wrote to me, a letter received on the very day when 
the telegraph brought us the sad intelligence of his death, he said : 

Tell Mr. Acklen that I have been detained longer than I anticipated, and I do 
not feel it due to him or just to him that he should be bound any longer by the 
pair. Tell him that I will return as soon as possible, and that he may consider the 
pair as at an end and vote as he wishes. 

Mr. Speaker, though not long in its pubhc councils, Judge Leon- 
ard has left to his country and to this House a legacy of a virtuous 
and upright example and of a life around which there are clustered 
very many beautiful and hallowed memories. 

All, a voice doth speak from his grave to-day; the voice of peace, the 
voice of conciliation. I remember in 1861, just when the faces of the 
American people were growing dark in the scowl of that swiftly-gather- 
ing war-storm, an old man who had been broken by the storms of state 
and had for a very long time represented the genius and eloquence of 
statesmanship of Kentucky in the national councils went down to the 
Congressional Garden, and just inside the gate, on the left-hand side of 
the east gate as you enter, he planted an acorn which he had brought 
from Kentucky; and he planted it in the name of the spirit of union 
and harmony and peace. The storm came on. The acorn was be- 
neath the ground. The storm raged and beat upon all our land. The 
acorn, under the beautiful and mysterious operations of nature, was 
dying that it might live in a newer and a brighter creation. The 
storm passed away and the oak tree grew up and waves its arms to- 
day in the soft spring air, drinking in the sunhght, and defying the 
storm. He who mar-ks its wavings to the kisses of the breeze, or he 



who stands beneath its shadow with a knowledge of its history, must 
find the spirits of peace and union all about it in accord with the noble 
wish of the great-hearted Kentuckian who planted it there. 

Ah, sir, the spirit of conciliation, the spirit of peace and harmony 
dwells about the grave of John Edwards Leonard to-day. It 
speaks trumpet-tongued to us, and tells us, men of the North and 
men of the South, "Cease, cease the proclamation of this everlasting 
gospel of hate; unite hands and unite hearts that the arch of the 
Union may be cemented and grow stronger and stronger till it shall 
be beyond the power of anarchy, beyond the crumbling touch of time 
and of change." It says to us, let all these bitter buried memories be 
still; walk in the ways of peace, and cease to revile, to persecute, 
and to hate. Shall we not hearken to that voice and heed its warn- 
ings ? Andif it shall bear to us the lesson of charity; if it shall teach 
us the lesson of forgiveness; if it shall make us remember that the 
time will come, as come it will with all of us, when this earthly life 
is about to be swallowed up by the advancing waves of death, and 
the trembling heart-beats of nature's dissolution knocking at the door 
of eternity shall ask for the last sublimest light we shall ever receive; 
and if it teach us that in that solemn hour we shall shudder at the 
memory of our hates and dwell with delight upon the recollection of 
our loves and charities — ay, if this voice that I seem to hear shall 
teach us these things, then that grave on the green Pennsylvania 
hill-side shall become a shrine toward which patient and pious feet 
shall bend and where Americans may sit to learn the sweet lessons 
of charity and the teachings of gentle peace. 

And if in his life Judge Leonard taught these lessons, and if they 
are yet heard from his grave, what indeed should be his epitaph ? 
Should it not be those memorable words which fell so sweetly upon 
the ears of the listening twelve as they sat on the mountain side from 
the loving lips of Him " who spake as never man spake." 

Blessed are the peace-makers, for they shall be called the children of God. 



ADDRESS OF MR. WARD ON THE 



Address of yviR. ^ard, of J^ennsylvania. 

Mr. Speaker: The late Hon. John E. Leonard, the subject of to- 
day's memorial exercises, was an entire stranger to me until the com- 
mencement of the extra session of the Forty-fifth Congress in Octo- 
ber, 1877. I had never seen or held any communication with him 
before that date. Knowing that I represented the district in Pennsyl- 
vania in which he was born, and in which his father's family resided, 
he sought me, and from that period opened an acquaintance which, 
warmed by frequent intercourse and by review of persons, scenes, 
and incidents prized by and pleasant to both of us, expanded into a 
cherished friendship. " Those who had been his people in youth had 
become my people of the present, and the home that was his home 
of yore had become my home of to-day. The germs thus planted 
were nurtured by his sterling qualities of head and heart and grew 
into bonds of close fellowship that were strong and would have been 
lasting had not the relentless scythe of Death, with sudden stroke, 
severed them forever. 

John Edwards Leonard was born in Kennett Township, Ches- 
ter County, Pennsylvania, near the village of F.airville, on the 22d 
day of September, 1845, and was the only child of John E. and 
Mary H. Leonard. 

His ancestry dates back to the early settlers of Chester and Dela- 
ware Counties; and Hon. John Edwards (great uncle of the deceased 
and after whom he was named) was a member of this House and died 
about 1842, during his term of service. Deprived by death of a 
mother's watchful care when five years old, his paternal grandmother 
faithfully supplied, as nearly as could be, her place; and between the 
deceased and this relative the most affectionate regard existed, which 
he was always eager to express by loving remembrances till the date 
of her death in November, 1876. His first school was the Fairville 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF JOHN EDWARDS LEONARD. 1 7 

Academy of his native village ; and here he evinced a natural inclina- 
tion of mind toward studious pursuits. He was prominent in organ- 
izing debating societies, and surprised both teachers and hearers by 
his gifts of oratory at this early age. He endeavored to become 
acquainted with the history of political events transpiring, read and 
admired the speeches of Clay, Webster, and other prominent men of 
the day, and preferred the companionship of books and the pccupa- 
tion of study to either the employment or the sports that usually 
afford congenial work and pleasant pastime to the farmer's boy. 

In August, i860, he entered Phillips Exeter Academy in New 
Hampshire, to prepare for college. There, after three years of study, 
he w^as admitted to the freshman class at Harvard, in July, 1863, and 
during the first term of the year attained the first place. A protracted 
attack of severe fever, from which he narrowly escaped with life, 
interrupted his course, but notwithstanding, he applied himself assid- 
uously during vacation, and was prepared to join his class at the 
commencement of the sophomore year. 

From this date until he graduated, in 1867, his time during the in- 
tervals in college duties was occupied in teaching a private school in 
Massachusetts, in a visit to England, Ireland, and France, which he 
improved by delivering several lectures in the first two countries, on 
"The life and character of Abraham Lincoln" and on "Ireland and 
the Fenians," and by frequent correspondence to American journals. 
His stay in London was marked by the forming of a strong intimacy 
between himself and the then United States minister at the Court of 
Si. James, Mr. Adams. But these apparent digressions never inter- 
fered with the performance of his full measure of duty as a student, 
for he was always the equal of any among and generally in advance 
of his classmates. At commencement in 1867, he was chosen by his 
fellows for class orator, and by the faculty to deliver the Latin thesis. 
He graduated from Harvard in July, 1867, and for two years there- 
after remained in Europe, pursuing his studies at the University of 



Innsbruck, in Austria, and at Heidelberg, in Germany; and from the 
latter institution he received the degree of doctor of laws. After an 
extended tour through the continent, familiarizing himself with the 
languages of the different countries, and a course at the University 
of Paris, where he also received a degree, with especial reference to 
acquiring a knowledge of the Code Napoleon, he returned to his 
native land in 1869. Then followed a term in the law school at Har- 
vard and admission to practice in the courts of Massachusetts; soon 
after, a change of purpose, and in 1870 his removal to and settlement 
in Lake Providence, Louisiana. 

Of his manhood's career in that new home, of his private worth 
and exalted public station, it will be for those who have better 
knowledge and more eloquent voice to speak in eulogy. His legal 
learning, rich store of scholarly attainments, and forensic ability 
were evidenced on this floor in his brief service, noticeably in the con- 
tested-election cases from the fourth and tenth districts in the State 
which he in part represented. 

He gave further evidence of his powers in the composition of a 
volume of poems, published in New Orleans, in 1871, pure and beau- 
tiful in conception and graceful in expression, embracing transla- 
tions from the French and German, and in a carefully prepared 
Digest of the Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States 
in Louisiana Cases, with an appendix, containing a short treatise on 
the jurisdiction and practice of the Federal courts, compiled in 1875. 

Rarely have the prizes of science, of literature, and of popular 
favor been gathered in such profusion by one so young ; and trul)- 
his past and present gave promise of a glorious future. 

Mr. Speaker, John Edwards Leonard was more than a scholar 
and a statesman : 



His Lfe was gentle ; ^nd the elements 

So mix'd in him, that Nature might stand up 

And say to all the world, "This was a man! " 



To manly presence were added gentle manners, candor, and a 
hatred of all dissimulation and meanness. His nature was sensi- 
tive, touched keenly by any violence to his own and watchful to avoid 
any wound to the feelings of others. These traits of true manhood 
came by inheritance from the stalwart virtue, tolerant spirit, and ele- 
vated moral tone of his ancestry. Bom and nurtured in childhood 
in the pure atmosphere of Chester County, one of the first settle- 
ments of William Penn and his followers, among a people ever in the 
vanguard in the cause of truth, freedom of speech, and opinion, 
educational progress, and unrestricted civil and religious liberty; 
always alive to succor and defend the weak and oppressed, and 
equally earnest to denounce wrong and expose deceit, the principles 
of right and philanthrophy became instilled in his mind as naturally 
as he inhaled the clear air of his native hills. 

John Edwards Leonard exemplified these principles in his inter- 
course with his fellow-men and won their respect and esteem. 

Mr. Speaker, in this desert of political life in which we are thrown 
together, where differences of opinion and diversity of interests neces- 
sarily tend to produce acrimonious feelings and fierce struggles for 
supremacy, he is not truly great who is the leader in debate or wins 
" the applause of listening senates " by his eloquence. No ! rather is 
he greater who cheers with kindly word his stranger and weaker 
brother, or, giving tolerant ear to his humbler opinions, offers the 
opportune word of encouragement. To be thus considerate and 
kind was one of the conspicuous traits of our deceased friend. 

The life oi Mr. Leonard was not an aimless one, neither was his 
brilliant career the result of chance or accident. He was laudably 
ambitious, and from the beginning laid down a course of lofty pur- 
pose. In the class oration delivered in 1867 at Harvard, he said : 

Our lives are as yet in our hands. We can be what we will, the miserable mis- 
anthrope, the schemer, the nobody, tlie philanthropist. We cannot afford to look 
about us and watch for some caravan moving to El Dorado ; we cannot afford to 



ADDRESS OF MR. WARD ON THE 



say, "There is time enough "; least of all can we afford to distrust our abilities 
before we have given them a trial. Let us rather feel that he who is in the lists of 
life before us must sharpen his lance by the midnight lamp, must bind his girdle 
about him and his foot in the stirrup before the herald calls the mom. 

But, Mr. Speaker, into this short life, amid its many golden lines 
of high achievements, were inter^voven the dark threads of sadness. 
In 1874 he married an estimable lady, resident of Saint Paul, in the 
State of Minnesota. A brief married life of three years was ter- 
minated by the death of his wife, leaving to his fathedy care two 
tender children, now absent in a foreign land, in all probability un- 
aware of their latest loss, and possibly too young to realize the depth 
of bereavement that is centered in complete orphanage. 

And who shall draw the saddening picture of his last hours, clothed 
in romance unrelated and in mystery unrevealed? In a stranger 
land, away from all he loved, the unexpected blow falHng while the 
heart beat high and warm with youth and hope, the radiant present 
mingling with the illumined promise of the time to come, and both 
fading into the darkening cloud of death. But to him that hour was 
not wholly darkened ; for, as the earthly prizes and possessions were 
passing away, there came visions from " the other shore " like those 
pictured in the words prized by the honored Vice-President, who died 
in this Capitol : 

The eye that shuts in a dying hour, 

Will open the next in Wiss ; 
The welcome will sound in the heavenly world. 
Ere the farewell is hushed in this. 

We pass from the clasp of mourning friends 

To the arms of the loved and lost ; 
And those smiling faces will greet us there, 

Which on earth were valued most. 

An thus the eventful life of John Edwards Leonard ended in 
Havana on March 15, 1878. 

Mr. Speaker, the committee, following the order of this body, bore 
his mortal remains to the place of his birth, in Chester County, where 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF JOHN EDWARDS LEONARD. 21 

they were received with unfeigned sorrow by friends, less ostenta- 
tious, it may be, but as true as any he had ever met; and there, on a 
somber Sunday afternoon, in the beautiful cemetery of Oaklands, 
surrounded by the weeping father, who had lavished the proofs of 
affection year by year on his only child and gloried at the proud place 
he had won; by the grieving schoolmates of his early days; by the 
neighbors from town and country, who gathered reflected honor from 
his advancement as one of themselves ; by the Senators and Repre- 
sentatives delegated to present the nation's mourning offering in the 
sad rites — there, as the winds sang requiem dirges through the trees, 
we laid him in his last rest, in a spot as bright and fair as any he has 
seen through many lands, and where a true-hearted people will pre- 
serve in ever-green remembrance the name of the honest, the pure, 
and the good. And there let him rest in peace, his epitaph inscribed 
with the words of his own poem: 

They tell me when the solemn hour 

Was nigh, when coursed the blood with feeble pace, 

Beneath the fell Destroyer's power, 
A smile came o'er thy face. 

And when the chilly hand of death 

Was on thy brow, and life's last feeble rill 
Was frozen with his icy breath. 

That sweet smile lingered still. 

As when the sunlight quits the earth, 

And leaves its traces on the faded day, 
So, when thy bright soul gained its biilh. 

It kissed thy mortal clay. 



ADDRESS OF MR. CALKINS ON THE 



^DDRESS OF JAr. pALKINS, OF JnDIANA. 

Mr. Speaker : The restless, busy scenes of life are almost daily 
interrupted by the solemn funeral procession ; and a heart may be 
never so light, yet it instinctively shudders at the sight of the hearse 
and the thought of the cold, cheerless tomb. At this time this 
body is called upon to lay aside business and dedicate the hour 
to the memory of one of its departed members, Hon. John Edwards 
Leonard, of Louisiana. How fitting to the occasion it is to place 
in the nation's archives tender recollections of a faithful officer! 

A few short weeks ago we parted with Judge Leonard, then in 
the full vigor of manhood, in the flood-time of health, and seemingly 
abounding in the ambitions of life. As we shook his hand for the 
brief separation none of us would have selected him from among us 
as the first to pay the great penalty of life. Here are men, ripe with 
years, whose allotted time at farthest is but short, and with ac- 
customed human foresight, one of these would have been selected 
by conjecture rather than one of the youngest. But such is not the 
subtle, mysterious way of Providence. 

The poet writes : 

Behold there, Death ! 
Throned on his tomb — entombed in his throne : 
Just as he ceased he rests for aye; his scythe 
Still wet out of its bloody swath, one 
Hand tottering sustains : the other strikes 
The cold drops from his bony brow. His 
Moldy breath tainteth all air. 

Mr. Speaker, how uncertain is life ! How frail the thread upon 
which it hangs! How little we know of the future! The dark arm 
of death, with suspended sword, rests above our pathway, and we 
know its fall is sure; but when? We know not. "Boast not thyself 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF JOHN EDWARDS LEONARD/ 23 

of to-morrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth." 
With this Divine caution all mankind must be content. 

With these considerations pressing upon us and the reverberations 
of the death-knell which summoned Judge Leonard into the great 
eternity beyond still lingering in our ears, let us proceed to pay our 
last earthly tribute of respect to the memory of the dead. 

The memory and monuments of good men 
Are more than lives. 

To die both good and young are nature's curses, 

As the world says ; ask truth, they are bounteous blessings ; 

For them we reach at heaven, in our full virtues. 

And fix ourselves new stars crown'd with our goodness. 

My acquaintance with Judge Leonard began with the opening of 
the special session of this Congress. We were never on mtimate 
terms of friendship, though our personal relations were often quite 
close and our meetings frequent. He impressed me from the begin- 
ning as a man of more than ordinary merit, a man of fixed determi- 
nation and active purposes, intent on making the world better for his 
having lived in it. He was a graduate of one of the oldest educa- 
tional institutions of our country, to be a graduate of which is of itself 
imperishable fame; but added to this he finished his education in the 
older countries of the world, thus adding to his great acquirements 
obtained at home the many accomplishments only obtainable by per- 
sonal discipline under the tutelage of the teachers of the Old World. 
He was a ripe scholar, a man of learning in his profession, and pos- 
sessed of a broad, comprehensive understanding. His gentlemanly 
bearing won for him friends in every circle. His equipoise and 
equanimity in society made him, gentle, easy, and graceful, and in 
conversation he was fluent, interesting, and afTable. 

As a debater he was succinct and positive ; as a speaker, earnest 
and impressive. He entered into discussions rarely, but when he did 
all were convinced of the sincerity of his opinions and the honesty of 



ADDRESS OF MR. CALKINS ON THE 



liis convictions. He was independent in thought and action. Even 
in party struggles on this floor he sonaetiraes acted independent of party 
dictation and advocated his opinions freed from party views. He had 
an independent fortune, one which placed him beyond the necessity 
of hard labor, yet he chose industry, and followed it as a matter of 
choice. He was a true type of the American youth, for he broke away 
from the home of his boyhood and the ties of kindred, and wandered 
far to the South, where he cast his fortunes among a strange people, 
but still clinging to and advocating the political principles of youth and 
standing by the predilections of his maturer years. He won the respect 
of the race of his color, though opposed largely by them in political 
sentiment. He invested a large portion of his fortune in the soil of his 
adopted State (Louisiana) and set himself assiduously at work to build 
up her industries and quicken her prostrated energies. • He believed in 
the principles of the Republican party, but scorned the idea ot assert- 
ing them merely for place and power. He was opposed to what is 
popularly known as "irresponsible government" at the South, and 
believed that the true interest of his adopted State demanded that she 
should be represented in office by her representative men. 

Early in Hfe he was bereft of the companion of his youth, and left 
with two little children — the fruits of his early love — to care for, to nur- 
ture and educate, deprived of a mother's care and affection. He held 
official positions because of his standing in life and his eminent fitness 
for the duties imposed. They were not his from search or effort, but 
came to him becauseof his abilities and political relations; and whether 
as a private citizen, judge, or Congressman, he always commanded the 
respect due a true, worthy, and well-educated gentleman. 

Thus feebly have I spoken of a few of Judge Leonard's many 
virtues. I must needs leave the rest. They will not perish, for — 

Virtue sole survives, 
Immortal, never-failing friend of man. 
His guide to happiness on high. 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF JOHN EDWARDS LEONARD. 25 

Mr. Speaker, my delicate task is nearly completed. Judge Leon- 
ard's death was as untimely as it was unexpected. Much has been 
said of his .mission to the " strange land" where he died. Without 
particularizing, it is perhaps enough to say, and enough to know, 
that his business was of the most honorable character. Here let the 
curtain drop, and let it shut out from the world's gaze its results. 
Perhaps the thread of romance which seems to permeate the last act 
of the drama may survive. Life in many respects is a romance. It 
is the cloud-land of life's sky; it is the imagery which lies just be- 
yond reality; it is the golden border on life's shadows ; it wanders 
by the side of fancy and adds impulse to all joys. 

By direction of the House, and on the 31st of last month, a com- 
mittee of Senators and Members followed the remains of Judge Leon- 
ard from his father's house, in West Chester, Pennsylvania, to the 
quiet cemetery adjoining. His aged and venerable father, bowed 
with grief and stricken with sorrow, joined the mournful procession, 
and beheld his only son, the pride of his life, the main stay of old 
age, precede him to the grave. There, all that is mortal of our fel- 
low-member now lies — there, by the side of his ancestors and friends 
who have gone before. There, the wild birds will sing their beauti- 
ful songs unheard by him. There the myrtle and eglantine will 
shed their sweet perfumes over him. There the pine and the cypress 
will chant their melancholy requiems in response to the wind's soft 
touch. Mingling with evening's gentle twilight,, the notes of the 
whippoorwill will not fall upon his ear. The storms will not touch him ; 
the wintry blast will not reach him; the ivy and the evergreen will not 
cheer him nor the moan of his children disturb him. He rests on. 

After life's fitful fever, he sleeps well. 

Friend, brother, patriot, statesman, farewell ! 

Leaves have their time to fall. 
And flowers to wither at the North-wind's breath. 

And stars to set; — but all, 
Thou hast all se.asons for thine own, O Death ! 



4L 



ADDRESS OF MR. KENNA ON THE 



;DDRESS OF 



yVlR. J<ENNA, OF JVeST yiRGINIA. 



Mr. Speaker : In view of what has been so well said on the pend- 
ing resolutions, and what is still to be said by gentlemen of larger 
and better acquaintance with the subject of the resolutions than I 
enjoyed, my observations shall be brief. 

John Edwards Leonard, we learn from the record, was bom in 
Chester County, Pennsylvania, September 22, 1845; hence he was 
in his thirty-third year. He studied in early youth at Phillips Exeter 
Academy, New Hampshire. He graduated at Harvard College in 
1867. He studied the civil law in Germany and received the degree 
of doctor of laws from the University of Heidelberg. Upon the com- 
pletion of his studies he repaired to Louisiana and began the prac- 
tice of law in the thirteenth judicial district of that State. He held 
the office of district attorney and also that of judge of the Louisiana 
supreme court. I have never heard it intimated that he did not dis- 
charge the duties of any and every station honorably and well He 
was afterward elected to the Forty-fifth Congress as a Repubhcan. 
Coming from a State whose existence since the war has been black- 
ened and blighted by a condition of political degeneracy unequaled 
before in the history of mankind, he brought with him, so far as I 
have been able to learn, the respect and full confidence of all who 
knew him in either public or private life. And now that Louisiana 
has resumed her ancient standing as an equal among the sovereign 
States of a restored Union, now that her rights and prerogatives 
under the Constitution there are none to gainsay, it is pleasing to 
realize that Mr. Leonard had no responsibility for the weight that 
dragged her down to the depths of desperation and despair and 
stood no obstacle in the way of the endeavor which inspired her 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF JOHN EDWARDS LEONARD. 27 

resurrection into new life. Coming, Mr. Speaker, from a State the 
title to whose majorities for aspirants, ranging from constable to 
President, was the subject of angry and bitter contest, it is gratifying 
to those of us who knew and liked him here to remember that he 
brought with him to this House the certificates of both the rival 
governors of his State and presented himself for admission with a 
right to what he claimed unquestioned, unquestionable, and com- 
plete. I do not allude to these things for the sake of adverting on 
this melancholy occasion to topics of a political kind. I do it for 
the reason that, as a Democrat and as a man, in the fact that the de- 
ceased as a Republican passed through the fierce decade of Louisiana 
politics, beginning with 1867, and came out of it with high public 
trusts, conceded to be his by honorable acquirement, commandmg 
the united respect of all his people without regard to party, I find a 
tribute to his character and his good name of which it would not be 
justice to rob his memory. 

Mr. Speaker, I had no acquaintance with Mr. Leonard until he 
took the oath of office at the bar of this House as a Representative 
in the American Congress. I was not aware that harm had befallen 
him or his until from the same bar on the 15th of March I heard the 
announcement of his death on that morning in the city of Havana. 
Only a few days before that intelligence reached us I saw him at the 
Riggs House on the eve of his departure for Cuba. He was then in 
active, vigorous life, and I do not doubt in perfect health. No tidings 
of his illness reached us. In a letter addressed to a friend and col- 
league in the House he said : " I will be with you in a week." But 
ere that week had passed he had surrendered his life to the God who 
gave it, and the return, which he was evidently striving to hasten, 
to the associations and labors incident to official station here was 
destined never to be. He had made friendship with comrades whom 
he was to meet no more. He had undertaken duties which other 
hands must now perform. His eyes were turned homeward and his 



ADDRESS OF MR. KENNA ON THE 



fare engaged, but accident prevented the ship Columbus from sailing, 
and he was to look no more upon his native land forever and for- 



Of the cause which took him to Havana I know nothing except 
that his mission was personal to himself. Rumors about it have 
been afloat, and to-day we have heard their verification from honor- 
able, reliable lips. Of the beauty and poetry and romance of life 
which they portray, I have not the time to speak. But they demon- 
strate the fact that he was a brave, high-minded, chivalrous, devoted 
man. One of his colleagues and a most worthy member of this 
House said to me since his death : " Mr. Kenna, he could not have 
been made the doer of evil deeds." I was impressed by the remark, 
for it accorded with ray own opinion, formed from our associations 
on this floor. I found him a frank, honest, intelligent, sincere, gen- 
erous man. Ready at all times to maintain his convictions, they 
were at no time indelicately thrust forward. Conscious that honest 
merit would find its just place in public esteem, he sought no personal 
advertisement. He was active in his application to duty, earnest 
and energetic in debate, persistent in the maintenance of his ideas of 
propriety and of right, and, withal, a worthy and valuable member 
of this House. He died at the age of thirty-two years and less than 
six months. 

Mr. Speaker, in the cutting off of one in the prime and vigor of 
early manhood, with a life only half spent, the glory of achievement 
arising in beauteous visions of a future that is not for him, there is 
something which makes an impression difterent from that which 
comes from the departure of one in the fullness of his years. I do 
not mean that the power of choice would enable us to determine that 
age and experience could be better surrendered than youth and 
promise. The need of such a decision has been wisely spared us by 
an all-seeing, beneficent Providence. Nor would I be understood 
to intimate a want of regard for those who have realized the full 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF JOHN EDWARDS LEONARD. 29 

measure of' three score and ten. There is an attraction about the 
silvery frosts of seventy winters which the yellow sands of thirty 
summers cannot possess. There is something akin to another world 
in a head that is already shrouded in white, and hence the mystic 
veneration for gray hairs which has become prominent among the 
acknowledged virtues of mankind. But when death invades the 
ranks of fresh maturity and snatches the fruit that is ripening there, 
he seems to come before his time and to gather to-day the harvests 
of the morrow. Such a visitation seems a denial rather than the end 
of life. 

But, sir, as it e with the deceased so must it be, sooner or later, 
with you and with me. His death has made in this House, as it has 
made in the family circle, a vacant chair. Others, too, have had 
their places here and are gone. Distinguished men have presided 
for a season over the deliberations of this body. They also have 
nearly all departed. The time will come when the voice which so 
ably and acceptably controls this House will be hushed, and the 
ranks which are so busy about us will be thinned, until the last shall 
have rendered his final account. Day by day the inexorable reaper 
whispers in our ears : 

Men may come and men may go, 
But I go on forever. 

There is a lesson for young and old in all this. It is that we shall 
so live, so meet the responsibilities which confront and surround us, 
so discharge the duties which our respective stations impose, so dedi- 
cate ourselves to the service of our country and of Heaven, that 
when the earth shall reach forth her arms to receive us, all we are 
and have been and hope to be shall not be laid with the flesh be- 
neath the sod. Our national situation invites earnest action, patri- 
otic endeavor. Strong hands are idle, brave hearts are sorrowing, 
the tender and the helpless are in distress. The demand of the hour 




is solemn ; the fate of millions is in our hands. May the God of 
nations so direct the councils of this Congress, of which our lamented 
comrade formed a part, that its labors may redound to the benefit 
of mankind when you and I shall have passed away. 



^DDRESS OF yVlR. poVERT, OF J>fEW yORK. 

A sudden and an awful silence in the midst of sound ! Quick 
darkness in the place of midday sunlight! The ripple of joyous 
laughter broken at once by the sharp moan of anguish! These are 
but symbols of that distinct contrast, that sharply defined change so 
often presented to our startled senses when life goes quickly out and 
when death comes swiftly in I Not when the head is silvered and 
the eye grown dim ; not when the feeble steps have grown weary 
by the wayside; not when the tired heart has carried within it the 
gathered burden of lengthened years ;— not then does this change 
seem so painfully, so startlingly distinct. It is then but the slow 
and measured creeping in of silence upon sound. It is but the grad- 
ual darkening of the shadows. There is due space and proper pause 
between the smile of joy and the tear of sorrow. But when the icy 
touch of death is placed swiftly upon a warm and bounding pulse ; 
when the hght goes out forever from eyes not dim with age ; when a 
young heart not yet filled with all life's full experiences ceases longer 
to beat, then it is that you and I stand dumb and awe-stricken in 
the presence of the mighty alchemist who has wrought this sudden 
and this startling change. 

When the Forty-fifth Congress met within this Chamber at the 
beginning of the special session, the observer, looking down upon 
those assembled here, saw represented upon this floor various types 
of manhood. 

There were those among us who had passed the " threescore years 
and ten" allotted to mankind for active labor, but who had been 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF JOHN EDWARDS LEONARD. 31 

sent hither to give to the council of the nation the benefit of their 
rich and ripe experience. Had death come to one of these, the 
fathers of our council, it would have seemed perhaps but the sad 
payment at its full maturity of the last great debt of nature. 

There were those here in active middle life, who had been com- 
missioned by their constituencies to represent them upon this floor for 
their known and present capacity and power. Had death come to 
one of these, our active workers, it would have seemed perhaps but 
a briefly anticipated payment of the hfe-debt back again to the Great 
Leaner. There were those here who were yet in their earlier man- 
hood — who had been thus quickly advanced, not alone for what they 
had accomplished, but for what it was hoped they would yet achieve 
in the wider field of action afforded at the capital of the nation. 

None would have uttered the prophecy that the first voice to be 
silenced in this Chamber, the first seat to be vacated by death would 
have been from among this circle of the junior members of this body 
— the voice and the chair of him whose untimely end we mourn to- 
day. 

After the just and fitting and feeling eulogies, which have been 
pronounced by the gentleman from Louisiana — after the sadly kind 
words which have been uttered by those who knew our departed 
fellow-member longer and better than I — it may be deemed unneces- 
sary that I should detain this House while I attempt to speak, how- 
ever briefly, in commemoration of his life and services. While any 
attempted tribute of mine may not be and is not needed, it will not, 
I know, be deemed ungracious ; for although my acquaintanceship 
with Judge Leonard began only with the commencement of this 
Congress, I enjoyed more than usual opportunities for meeting and 
knowing him outside of this Chamber, in those pleasantest of all re- 
lations — social and home life. It is mainly from this standpoint 
that I desire to speak. Others have told us the story of his short but 
busy life, and have paid fitting tribute to his conceded ability. We 



32 ADDRESS OF MR. COVERT ON THE 

have heard how carefully and how fully he was fitted by the learning 
of the schools to take advanced position in his profession, and how 
abundantly he succeeded as the result of this preparation. Called 
very early to assume important positions of trust and honor — made 
prosecuting officer in the State of his adoption at an exceedingly 
early age, and filling these positions with distinguished ability, he 
was sent here at the last Congressional election to represent an im- 
portant district in the State of Louisiana. It is given to but few thus 
to play important parts upon the world's great stage so well and so 
perfectly as he within the compass of the comparatively few years of 
our late friend's life-time. In his private life I believe him to have 
been without reproach. It is the testimony of all who knew him 
socially that he was what I in all my intercourse with him ever found 
him to be — an affable, genial, generous gentleman. Always mindful 
of the feehngs and opinions of others, he was tolerant and consid- 
erate. Though fortune had been kind to him in a marked degree, he 
was not unduly moved by her favors. Though the v/orld's applause 
had sounded loudly in his ear, he was not thereby made deaf to the 
demands of those. Smaller duties whose patient performance fills and 
rounds out a perfect life. Such I believe to have been the character 
of him who came with us at the commencement of our session — 
who has gone from us before its close. 

Though the middle aisle of this Chamber separates the members 
of the House who differ in political sentiment, no space divides those 
upon this floor who recognize in each other chivalric action, true 
manhood, and conscientious devotion to duty. These were the qual- 
ities which adorned the character of our associate when Hving, these 
the traits which provoke just tribute from both sides of this Chamber 
when we mourn him dead. 

That our late associate filled lightly and easily, and as one born to 
power, the various positions of honor conferred upon him, can afford 
perhaps but little consolation in this sad hour to those who loved 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF JOHN EDWARDS LEONARD. 33 

him best and who were bound to him by the ties of blood and 
kinihed. Ever since the world began its people have at seasons 
mourned the loss of the great and good, those alike eminent for 
ability and beloved for gentleness and worth. Public proclamations 
have been made; bells have tolled; the insignia of mourning have 
draped the churches and the public places in every land where trib- 
ute has ever been paid to the memory of departed greatness. The 
ink has scarcely dried upon the official announcements, the last sad 
echoes of the bells have but died upon the air, the badges of mourn- 
ing have but met the moistened eye, when others have assumed the 
vacant places and have taken the symbols of power from the dead, 
cold hands of greatness. 

But a few short months ago a crown across the water was for a 
brief moment laid aside. Kingly power itself yielded to the foe, 
stealthy and silent, which crept even to the throne and carried Roy- 
alty captive to the great beyond. The act, if not the cry, was, " The 
King is dead; long live the King!" The tolling of the bells turned 
to chiming, and the people of Italy welcomed a new monarch even 
while rtiey wept the old. 

But a few short weeks ago the eyes of the most exalted of contem- 
poraneous churchmen were closed in that same long sleep which had 
given rest to other prelates, in their times as exalted as he. In thou- 
sands of churches the sorrow-notes of stricken peoples were wafted from 
continent to continent and upward even to the very skies. The solemn 
requiems had but ended, the universal mourning had not ceased, when 
a sad-faced council selected a successor to fill the high station and dis- 
charge the sacred duties of him who had gone from earth forever. 

And so with all who fill public places, be they high or be they low : 
they live, they die, and are replaced by others. 

The world's necessities, and even Heaven's teachings, are that, 
spite of mourning and of tears, the world's needs be supplied and 
Heaven's demands fulfilled. 



SL 



It is not greatness simply to have held important trusts. Greatness 
lies in the faithful performance of all duties committed to us. That 
man is not truly great who does not display homely, honest nobility 
in the smaller affairs of life, in his daily intercourse with his fellow- 
men. 

Kind hearts are more than coronets, 

And simple faith than Norman blood. 

I indulge the belief that to the sorrow-stricken father and to the 
heavy-hearted kindred of our late associate the fact that his son and 
their kinsman was respected for his manly qualities and loved for his 
virtues, will be a kindlier and more grateful message than any state- 
ment coming from us, however emphatic, of our admiration for his 
ability, our appreciation of his mental power. 

The record tells us of our associate's death. A slab in the Congres- 
sional Cemetery will bear sad testimony that another Representative 
has been stricken down while in the public service. And yet for us, 
and for all who knew him, he still lives in the lessons which his life 
and which his death have furnished. 

At this hour, as we pause to do honor to his memory, as we try — 
tenderly as we may — to convey to the stricken hearts of those who 
mourn him most ©ur appreciation of their loss, our sympathy in their 
sorrow, let us endeavor in all sincerity, in all trustfulness, to believe 
with them in the truth of the inspired sentiment : 

There is no Death ! What seems so is transition; 
This life of mortal breath 

Is but a suburb of the Ufe elysian, • 

Whose portals we call Death ! 



^DDRESS OF yVlR. |^INEY, OF ^OUTH pAROLINA. 

Mr. Speaker : There have been few, if any, Congresses since the 
foundation of the government that were not called upon to pay 
mournful tributes to the memory of some of tlieir number. Death 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF JOHN EDWARDS LEONARD. 35 

follows in this mortal existence as resultant from life itself The fact 
that we live furnishes incontestable evidence that we must die. There 
is no condition or rank that can place us beyond the reach of the 
inevitable It comes alike to all: the aged and the young, the 
learned and the unlearned, the millionaire and the pauper, the ruler 
and the subject, the believer and the atheist; all must succumb to the 
scythe of this insatiable reaper. Thus it confronts us in public and 
private life alike. It has now come into this Hall and taken one 
from among us who had given promise of a bright and hopeful 
future. 

At the opening session of the present Congress we were brought 
face to face with many new members, sent up from all parts of this 
great Republic. None furnished a more interesting subject for study 
than John Edwards Leonard, whose memory we cherish and whose 
early demise we deplore. Before I had acquaintance with or even 
heard him in debate I concluded from his fine, classic features and 
bright, intellectual cast of countenance that he was the possessor of 
a breadth of mind which indicated, I supposed, more than ordinary 
ability and talent. In this particular, judgment was not at fault, for 
in addition to the natural endowments with which he impressed me, 
he was liberally educated both at home and abroad. His accomplish- 
ments were the evidences that he improved his opportunities for learn- 
ing. He was a fine Greek and Latin scholar, and stood highest in 
his classes while at Harvard. 

He could read and write the modern languages with a proficiency 
and facility that clearly showed he had mastered them all. As a 
graduate of the University of Heidelberg, Germany, he delivered in 
German the class oration, and from the University of Pans he finally 
graduated with the delivery in French of the customary valedictory. 
Some of his theses are, I am told, among the choicest productions of 
his scholastic career. 

Thus it will be seen that he was in a large degree richly endowed 



36 



ADDRESS OF MR. RAINEY ON THE 



with those potent agencies that were well calculated to fit him for 
an extended sphere of usefulness had he been spared to his country. 
For one of his age he was conceded to be an excellent lawyer, at one 
time being one of the presiding judges on the bench of the supreme 
court of his adopted State. He was appointed to that exalted posi- 
tion on the recommendation of numerous members of the Louisiana 
bar, irrespective of party. This, of itself, is one of the best and 
strongest evidences of the esteem in which he was held, and of the 
value and estimate placed on his ability as a gentleman of attain- 
ments as well as a lawyer of professional repute. 

Though young in national legislation, he was nevertheless fully 
equipped from the armory of a well-stored mind which made liim 
equal to any emergency that arose or task assumed. I should say 
that he was a man of strong convictions, and when impressed with a 
sense of right not easily turned aside from a leading purpose. If my 
memory is not at fault, he never participated in this chamber in 
debate but on two or three occasions, and on each of these the right 
of a member's seat on this floor was involved. The last speech made 
here by the deceased was on the 20th of February, seven days pre- 
vious to his obtaining an indefinite leave of absence. On this date 
he gave utterance to the following somewhat remarkable and truly 
significant expressions. He said: 

Mr. Speaker, I have thought it but fair that I sliould lake some part in this case, 
because it comes from the State which I have the honor in part to represent, and 
with whose laws and customs I am to some extent famihar. But I promise the 
House, I promise the judges of this grave and dignified court, that if they will but 
listen to me for a few moments — say half an hour at the very most— it shall be a 
long, long while before I shall trouble them in another case of contested election. 

Subsequent events have attached an almost prophetic significance 
to those last words uttered by the deceased. Sir, it will indeed "be 
a long, long while before" we shall hear his voice again. Yes, never- 
more; in this Hall — 

So wise so young, they say, do ne 'er live long. 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF JOHN EDWARDS LEONARD. 37 

Judge Leonard was born on the zad of September, 1845, at 
West Chester, Pennsylvania. He was the fond and only child 
of his parents, in whom they had lodged such hope and antici- 
pated comfort for declining years. His mother has long since 
passed away, and his untimely taking off is indeed an irreparable 
loss and a great calamity and bereavement to his fond and doting 
father. The deceased was ever a welcome guest among his neigh- 
bors and associates, his society affording something more than casual 
entertainment; there wa's information to be gained wherever true 
culture was appreciated. 

From what I have learned he became fully identified with the "peo- 
ple and interests of Louisiana, being a property-holder as well as an 
official incumbent, a planter as well as a lawyer. In the capacity of 
district attorney, a position which he once held, it is worthy of note 
to say. that he never used his official position for the purpose of per- 
secuting and oppressing any citizen, let his station have been high or 
low. Apparently his great aim was to impress and maintain the dig- 
nity and at the same time vindicate the majesty of the law without 
doing detriment to the rights or immunities of the humblest citizen. 
It can in truth be said of him, that in his official capacities he never 
failed to "temper justice with mercy." 

Sir, the memory of Judge Leonard will surely be cherished and 
gratefully remembered by a confiding constituency, his colleagues, 
and his friends. 

Mr. Speaker, the circumstances and incidents intimately associated 
with his death partake in large degree of romance as well as regret. 
When I read the sad news of the morning that had come the night 
before, under the waters and over the wires from the isle of Cuba, 
my heart sank within me with sad and inexpressible astonishment. 
He was folded in the arms of death far away from his native land, 
his kinsmen, and familiar acquaintances, but yet comparatively near 
to one whom he truly and fondly adored, and the depths of whose 



38 ADDRESS OF MR. WHITE ON THE 

afifection for him no one will ever be able to fathom. Yes ; for him 
it might be said : 

Pity for thee shall weep her fountains dry, 
Mercy for thee shall bankrupt all her store ; 
Valor shall pluck a garland from on high — 
And Honor twine the wreath thy temples o'er. 



^DDRESS OF JVi.R. ^HITE, OF ^ENNSYLVAMIA. 

Mr. Speaker : I have no systematic phrases to utter about our de- 
ceased friend. " Out of the fullness of the heart the mouth speak- 
eth." When I heard the words that John Edwards Leonard was 
deceased I could hardly realize their truth. As I look around this 
Chamber and see the venerable heads of our colleagues who in the 
course of nature ought to have gone before him, I hesitate to believe 
the young member from Louisiana is dead. 

Sir, in the hurly-burly of public life, amid the jostling cares and 
interests of this Chamber, how hard it is, after a lapse of time, to 
pause because the heavy hand of Heaven has been upon us! The 
grim monster, Death, has entered this Hall through an avenue least 
to be expected. 

Yet a few days more, thee 
An all-beholding sun will see no more 
In all his course. 

The mystery of the taking off of one of the youngest of our num- 
ber while venerable colleagues full of years and honors survive is to 
us past finding out. For one so young, so promising for usefulness 
to his country, to die on the threshold of a public career is sad, sad 
indeed. Oh ! death in any form is terrible ! 

The tear, 
The groan, the knell, the pall, the bier ; 
And all we know, or dream, or fear 
Of agony, are thine. 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF JOHN EDWARDS LEONARD. 39 

The deceased was to me a stranger until I came here as a member- 
elect at the opening of this Congress. I met him then for the first 
time. Circumstances soon brought us into intimate acquaintance. 
Frank, generous, confiding, intercourse taught me the sterling, good 
quahties of his character. I met him often in the social circle and 
in the anxieties and perplexities of political strife. In the brief 
career since our session began, in October last, I knew no member of 
this House more intimately than our lamented friend. He honored 
me on more than one occasion with his confidence on matters of pub- 
lic and private concern of the greatest delicacy. Sir, comely in ap- 
pearance, courteous in his demeanor, cultivated and sprightly in 
intellect, our young associate was well fitted for a public career — for 
the employments of the statesman. A graduate of Harvard, he re- 
ceived there that elementary education and mental discipline giving 
a sure foundation for an imposing superstructure of intellectual re- 
finement, vigor, and profundity. Early seekmg the educational op- 
portunities of Heidelberg and continental Europe, he acquired those 
accomplishments so rare and yet so attractive and useful in our 
American public life. A native of the great State I love so much 
and aid to represent here, our deceased fiiend, when he had com- 
pleted his professional education and was admitted to the bar, looked 
to new fields for labor and opportunities in the battle of Ufe. The 
war was over, and Louisiana with her rare resources and romantic 
history presented to him an arena for future usefulness and fame. 
Making his home in that far-off State, then disturbed by the tur- 
bulence of the times, Mr. Leonard sought only that success in his 
professional business career which industry, integrity, and merit 
will always acquire. Living as a Northern man amid the conflicts 
and animosities of recent Louisiana politics, how honorable to his 
memory is the kind and generous tribute just uttered by his col- 
league, Mr. Ellis. Sir, all concede the deceased was well fitted for 
public life. With a mind cultivated and an ambition for honorable 



40 ADDRESS OF MR. WHITE ON THE 

distinction, there was promise in his career. His intellect was deep 
enough to grasp principles and broad enough to comprehend the re- 
lations of public affairs, and fertile enough to suggest and devise 
measures. Time would have developed him into greater prominence 
in this Chamber. Having convictions of his own, he was positive 
yet moderate in their utterance. No offensive display of learn mg or 
education, no pedantry, no dogmatic prejudices, deformed the char- 
acter of him at whose grave we stand. 

The rude, stern elements of character so well suited for successful 
conflicts in pioneer life he did not possess. He did not seem to develop 
that adventurous spirit so necessary to build up new States. His was 
rather the conservative character that would safely keep and justly 
administer what was already achieved. The loss of such a one from 
our political circle is a public calamity. In this country, sir, we want 
to invite into pubUc life young men with the varied acquirements, the 
spotless integrity, and honorable ambition our young associate pos- 
sessed. May I hope that the sincere tribute rendered by all to-day 
to the excellent qualities, those attributes of statesmanship this young 
Representative appeared to possess, may stimulate other young men 
of our country to go and do likewise. When public station and legis- 
lative life in America cease to have attractions for such as he, farewell, 
and a long farewell, to honorable ambition in our Republic. 

While our young friend was fitted for a useful career in the National 
Congress, yet the sedate duties of high judicial station were more 
attractive to him. After he had been elected to this Congress by a 
majority conceded by his opponents at the election of 1876, avacancy 
by death occurred on the supreme bench of Louisiana. He was ap- 
pointed to this vacancy, and immediately assumed his duties. They 
were most congenial to him. His fitness by intellectual training and 
the justness and equanimity of his disposition were recognized, I am 
informed, by the bar of the State. With true judicial dignity he could 
tread the walks of such a station. None better than he could become 



"a just judge." I have read somewhere that the remark, a judicial 
officer is invested with the ermine, though fabulous is yet eloquently 
significant. It is a tradition in natural history that the creature called 
ermine is keenly sensitive to its bodily cleanliness; any taint or defile- 
ment of its snow-white fur paralyzes it and makes it powerless for 
retreat. The hunters knowing this, pursuing it, spread mire and filth 
on the pass leading to its haunts; finding entrance there impossible 
without soiling his spotless coat, it falls readily a prey to the pursuer. 
He who sits in judgment upon his fellows, who discharges the func- 
tions of the judge, should be as sensitive to defilement as the ermine 
with which he is invested. » 

I know our deceased associate rose to the height of the great argu- 
ment when he sat as a judge, and when he came here to make laws 
for the people. I speak not fi-om conjecture, sir; it is a matter of his- 
tory that in the early sittings of this Congress it was designed by 
some members on the other side of this Chamber to offer a resolution 
indorsing the action of President Hayes in his treatment of Louisi- 
ana which ultimated in the overthrow of the Packard government, 
and the consequent destruction of the supreme court of which Judge 
Leonard was a member. While it was thought by many such a 
resolution was only for political effect, yet the deceased, knowing the 
particularity of one of our rules, which prohibits a member from 
voting on any subject in which he is interested, feared he could not 
conscientiously vote on the resolution. He had been a member of 
that government, and any expression of opinion by him about the 
action of the National Administration in relation to it, while it would 
have no practical effect, he apprehended would be improper. He 
hesitated to vote, and early one morning he called at my room to 
consult and take my opinion on the subject. How seriously and 
prudently he talked of the high and impartial duty of a Represent- 
ative in Congress. He wanted to be just to the country, just to 
himself, just to his office. The contingency, however, never arose 



6l 



42 ADDRESS OF MR. CUTLER ON THE 

which required him to vote on this question. I could multiply in- 
stances of his pure character. I shall intrude on this solemnity but 
a moment longer. Our young associate, Mr. Speaker, then, is no 
more forever among us. In my mountain home, on a temporary 
absence from here, while in the very crisis of the trial of an import- 
ant case, an associate counsel handed me the announcement in the 
morning paper of your presentation, Mr. Speaker, of the intelligence 
of Judge Leonard's sudden death and the adjournment of this 
House. Shocked with sadness, the duty of the hour would only 
permit me a hasty word of sympathy, which I now more deliberately 
express. ' • 

With him all is over. In the bustle of life, engaged with present 
cares, we will pass on, and the green grass will grow over the new 
grave of him we now commemorate; but, sir, two children are left 
behind to seek, when in more mature years, for the character of their 
father. Should we meet them as we wander through life, it will be 
a cheerful pleasure to pause and say to them. We knew your father ; 
he fell on the threshold of an honorable career; begin where he left 
off; fulfill his promise and all will be well. I have done. I can say 
of him who is the subject of this ceremony, as was said of one of 
Coutt's greatest characters, "I knew the man and do honor his 
memory. " 



^DDRESS OF yVlR. puTLER, OF JTeWT JERSEY. 

Mr. Speaker: Among the many new members that appeared at 
the opening of the extra session of the Forty-fifth Congress, none 
possessed a finer physique or gave greater promise of a long life of 
usefulness and honor than did John Edwards Leonard, whose sud- 
den death this Congress mourns to-day. 

I was attracted to him at the first, and it was my good fortune to 
make the acquaintance of the deceased at an early day following the 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF JOHN EDWARDS LEONARD. 43 

organization of the House, and such acquaintance ripened into a 
warm and generous friendship, and the favorable impression that I 
had formed of him upon his first appearance in Congress was more 
than justified by rsason of our friendly relations. 

The unfortunate complications resulting from the political situa- 
tion of the State of Louisiana made it incumbent upon the deceased, 
who held the only seat in this House as a Republican fi-om that State 
unquestioned and unchallenged, that he should take an active part 
at an early day in the discussion involving the right of a Represent- 
ative from that State to retain his seat. 

At the outset of the discussion I was impressed with the honesty 
of his statements, together with the strong conviction of right that 
characterized the advocacy of the propositions he maintamed. His 
every action appeared to be governed by a keen sense of justice; his 
impulse to do that which was justified by conscience, make no allega- 
tion but what was warranted by the evidence, and draw no deduction 
or conclusion but what could be defended by the facts and law. 

I recall with much pleasure in the discussion of the California 
case, Wigginton and Pacheco, a remark that he made to me just 
prior to his argument : 

You are one that believes that election cases are not political but strictly judicial, 
and in that view you are not supported by the majority of either of the parties, but 
I confess to great sympathy with the views that you entertain, and in this case I 
am compelled to disagree with my party, and I hold the opinion that neither Wig- 
ginton nor Pacheco is entitled to a seat, and I trust you will listen to my remarks, 
for I think you will arrive at the same conclusion. 

I hstened to his speech with great interest and close attention, as 
in fact I do to every argument in which election cases are discussed, 
for there are no matters presented to the consideration and decision 
of this House involving greater interests, higher privileges, or more 
far-reaching in their results than the question touching the right of 
the member to represent his district, for it afiects not only each and 
every citizen in the district, but it equally afiects the sovereignty of 



44 ADDRESS OF MR. CUTLER ON THE 

the State as well as the general government. For what impartial 
judge can, without surprise and feeling of alarm, listen to the an- 
nouncement heretofore made by members upon this floor in the final 
adjudication of election cases: "Upon all political questions I am 
paired with A. B. Upon this question, if he were present, he would 
vote ay and I would vote no"; or vice versa. And yet the record of 
past sessions affords frequent evidence of this state of things, and 
well may a lover of his country despair of the future of the Republic 
and the patriotic citizen lose confidence in its perpetuity unless elec- 
tion cases are decided judicially and in accordance with the strict 
rules of law and evidence, ignoring and losing sight of the question 
of political expediency or political results. 

And, Mr. Speaker, I cannot but digress for the moment to express 
the hope that some plan will yet be devised, some legislation secured, 
by which the legality of the member's right to a seat in this body 
when contested shall be settled by the courts of the State and the 
Congress admit such Representative whose right to the seat shall 
have been determined by the proper court of the State, thus reliev- 
ing the candidates from great vexation and trouble, the government 
from great expense, and giving the district its legal Representative at 
the organization of each Congress. 

I gave close attention to that speech of my friend; and, while I 
could not agree with his conclusions, I could not but admire his in- 
dependence, when he said during the course of that debate : 

As I understand the Constitution of my country the House of Representatives 
is now sitting as a court of justice and each member of this House is a judge acting 
under the sanction of his official oath. And am I to be told that it is my duty in 
such a case to cast my vote as a judge with my party because forsooth the vote 
which I shall thus cast will be advantageous to me and to others of the same polit- 
ical proclivities ? Sir, if so foul a doctrine as that is to be applied in a court of 
justice, let the meanness of the deed at least be acknowledged and understood. 
There is no necessity of adding hypocrisy to villainy. If the judges of this court 
are to vote according to their party proclivities, let us have an end of all tliis farce 
of a trial and judgment. 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF JOHN EDWARDS LEONARD. 



Yes, Mr. Speaker, I listened to another speech of my friend, deliv- 
ered but a short time before he bid us " good by" and we returned 
him our " Godspeed," and I extract the following from it; it was 
his last speech in this House, and that too in an election case from 
Louisiana, Acklen vs. Darrall : 

Mr. Speaker, I have thought it but fair that I should take some part in this case 
because it comes from the State which I have the honor in part to represent, and 
with whose laws and customs I am to some extent famiUar. But I promise the 
House, I promise the judges of this grave and dignified court that if they wUl but 
listen to me for a few moments, say half an hour at the very most, it shall be a long, 
long time before I shaU trouble them in another case of contested election. 

One may almost wonder if in this he saw the end. Was it pro- 
phetic ? 

How sad the reflection, that at so early a day following that prom- 
ise and pledge he should be summoned before a higher court and 
before a just Judge— a Judge that never errs, and there he is making 
a plea, not for another, but a personal plea in his own behalf, in a 
court in which the only rule is even and exact justice, in which the 
Judge is justice personified, where every act, word, and deed must 
have been in strict accord with " right principle and conscience " to 
secure His approval. 

It is not for me to enter the domestic circle, or lift the veil that 
now envelops a sorrowing famUy or stricken constituency. My mis- 
sion is complete, my duty performed, when I place a chaplet upon 
the grave of my friend and speak of him as I knew him— a brave 
man, a warm friend, a true citizen, a fearless legislator, a faithful 
Representative, one who had not only the courage of his convictions 
but also the courage of maintaining and defending them. As a legis- 
lator he brought to the performance of his duties a cultivated mind, 
with experience, knowledge and observation, that bid fair to be of 
great value to his colleagues, advantage to his constituency and 
State, and honor to his country. 



46 



ADDRESS OF MR. BUNNELL ON THE 



But these halls shall echo his footsteps no more; his voice no 
longer fall upon our ears ; his counsel no longer be sought, and the 
years of usefulness and honor that had been hoped for him, and pre- 
dicted of him by a loving constituency and admiring friends, have 
been suddenly cut off, and we gaze upon that vacant seat in this 
Chamber and exclaim : 

Man proposes, but God disposes. 

And nought is left for us, as we drop a tear of sorrow, but to cherish 
his memory and emulate his virtues, and to remember that life is — 

Like the snow-fall in the river, 

A moment white, then melts forever, 

and that our end and object in life should be to perform the duty of 
life well, and to that end select and choose those paths that will lead 
us to the performance of all our public duties in accordance with 
" right principle and conscience," looking forward to that realization 
so beautifully expressed : 

Would'st have a friend, would'st know what friend is best ; 
Have God thy friend, who passeth all the rest. 

And then shall we have reached that point where as citizens we shall 
be patriotic; as friends, true; as legislators, fearless and brave; faith- 
ful to the high trusts confided to our keeping, and governed by no 
motive other than to be just to ourselves and true to our country. 



yiDDRESS OF yVlR. JDuNNELL, OF yVllNNESOTA. 

Mr. Speaker: The Hon. John E. Leonard, whose life and death 
we now commemorate, was bom at West Chester, in the State of 
Pennsylvania, on the twenty-second day of September, eighteen hun- 
dred and forty-five. He became a student in Phillips Exeter Acad- 
emy, at Exeter, in the State of New Hampshire, in eighteen hundred 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF JOHN EDWARDS LEONARD. 47 

^ 

apd sixty, that he might complete his preparation for the University 
at Cambridge, in the Commonweahh of Massachusetts. This was 
record at the academy : he was good in all his studies and always 
did his work in all branches thoroughly and well. Though not 
ranking with the very highest, he was deficient in no study. He 
possessed a mind remarkably well balanced for one so young. His 
social qualities were such as to commend him to the favor of his 
teachers and associates as a high-minded, honorable, generous boy. 
In addition to the above record, communicated to me by the prin- 
cipal of the academy, the following honorable mention is added : 
" The impression that he made here is still distinct in the memory of 
those who knew him." The social, moral, and intellectual qualities 
which he had and exercised during his course at this Rugby of New 
England, still keep fresh the impression he there made. These qual- 
ities, therefore, must have been well and harmoniously developed. 

He entered the university at Cambridge in eighteen hundred and 
sixty-three and graduated with honor in eighteen hundred and sixty- 
seven. It is said of him here that he was a bright, ready scholar, 
with the faculty of acquiring rapidly and then making the most ad- 
vantageous use of his acquisitions. His standing on the rank-list 
was very high in his freshman and senior years. He was popular 
among his fellow-students, and in the senior year was chosen class 
orator. He showed while in college that faculty for writing and 
speaking which doubtless helped him to his early success in his pro- 
fession and in public life. His parts were good and they were avail- 
able for ready use. He had a just measure of confidence in himself. 
He had energy and an honorable ambition. 

Thus, at the preparatory school at Exeter, where Wet^ter and 
Everett and hundreds of the most eminent lawyers, jurists, divines, 
statesmen, and scholars of the last and present century, drank with 
delight their first draughts at the Pierian spring, and at Harvard, the 
most famous seat of learning in the Xew World, whose triennial at- 



ADDRESS OF MR. DUNNELL ON THE 



tests its great service to all departments of higher education, he 
cheerfully submitted himself to all the discipline which these institu- 
tions could give him. 

After his graduation from Harvard, he became a student of law in 
the university at Heidelberg, in Germany, a university founded in 
the fourteenth century, rich in libraries and widely renowned for the 
exact and profound learning of its professors. At the close of his 
studies there he received the degree of doctor of laws. Returning 
to the United States, he setded in the State of Louisiana and com- 
menced the practice of law in the thirteenth judicial district. He 
rose rapidly in his profession, and was soon made district attorney. 
In eighteen hundred and seventy-six he was appointed associate jus- 
tice of the supreme court of the State. The same year he became 
the Republican candidate for Congress in the fifth district, and was 
elected a member of the Forty-fifth Congress. These honors he at- 
tained at the age of thirty-one. 

In eighteen hundred and seventy-two. Judge Leonard was mar- 
ried to Miss Ella Burbank, a woman of rare beauty and refinement, 
the daughter of Hon. James C. Burbank, of Saint Paul, Minnesota. 
She died in December, eighteen hundred and seventy-five, leaving 
two children, sons, who are now in Europe, under the care of their 
maternal grandmother. 

On the fifteenth of last October, the subject of our eulogies be- 
came our fellow-member in this House, well prepared by natural and 
acquired powers and graces, to take and hold here an honorable po- 
sition. On a leave of absence from the House, he left Washington 
during the closing days of February and reached the island of Cuba 
March f»urth. He died at Havana on the fifteenth of the mouth, 
when he had been from his seat but two weeks. 

This is a simple and unadorned recital of the chief incidents in the 
life of him we now seek to honor. We saw him here take his stand 
at the starting-place. We cannot tell how well he would have run 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF JOHN EDWARDS LEONARD. 49 

tlie race of public life; how rich the garlands which would have 
wreathed his brow, had death allowed him to reach the goal. We 
can only say he had the force and vigor of youth; he had the cul- 
ture of the schools. The severer studies had wrought out the ele- 
ments of the mental panoply with which he should battle for the vic- 
tory, and these, the classics had polished and bound together as with 
hooks of gold. Still the brightness of his armor did not blind the 
angel of death. He espied him on the placid waters in the bay of 
the Queen City of the green Isle of the Antilles, with Moro and La 
Cabana castles looking down upon him as he wasnearing the steamer 
which should take him to his native land. 

Mr. Speaker, these ceremonies are evidence that the condition, the 
situation of man in life, furnish no law to death. It appears when and 
how it pleases. It neither fears the mighty nor respects the lowly. 

The glories of our blood and state 

Are shadows, not substantial things ; 
There is no armor against fate ; 

Death lays his icy hands on kings. 

The beauty of health or of youth cannot keep it back. The most 
beneficent life, the choicest spirit, give to death no concern and put 
off its approach not an hour. It has no regard for tears and heeds 
not the pleadings of affection. 

It is an enemy as impartial as it is universal. The great life pur- 
pose ; the grandest mission in the service of humanity ; the rarest 
personal virtues ; vast acquisitions in learning, in wealth', in the means 
for happiness and usefulness; deeply cherished hopes, and the most 
noble endeavors turn not aside this great enemy of the race. It but 
utters the decree, " Dust to dust, ashes to ashes," and moves on its 
its work. 

The exultant Iieart of the devout astronomer ceases to beat by the 
coming of death, just as the long-looked -for and predicted planet 
approaches the spot in the heavens where he has long held the faith- 
ful telescope. Death will not permit him to give a name to this 



50 ADDRESS OF MR. DUNNELL. 

newly discovered member in the stellar family of God. The mariner 
through many storms has brought the richly laden ship within sight 
of the destined haven, and yet he falls at his post when his voice 
might well-nigh reach the objects of his pride and his love. The 
man who for years, amid painful toils, has planted the seeds of truth 
within the realms of error, must close his eyes and yield up his spirit 
when the dehghtful fruitage is just ready to strike his vision and its 
transporting sweetness fill his soul. 

Death gives no time for the adjustment of accounts or the correc- 
tion of records. The man who for a whole life-time has been justly 
esteemed the embodiment of integrity surrenders to death on the 
very day when he is prepared to dissipate the charges of dishonesty 
which had come upon him by some error in calculation or in state- 
ment. Man is overtaken by this fell foe when the reasons for some 
course of action, some absence from home or from business are 
known only to himself alone. Death gives no time for explanations, 
no opportunity to scatter the clouds which rest above him and which, 
because of his taking oflf, will never quit his name. The good ruler 
of a great nation, who has through a long and direful war clung fast 
to her changing fortunes, dies just when the air begins to move by 
the first shouts of final victory. 

Leaves ha>ve their time to fall, 
And flowers to wither at the North-wind's breath. 

And stars to set; — but all, 
Thou hast all seasons for thine own, O Death ! 

Mr. Ellis. I ask for a vote on the resolutions. 

The question being taken, the resolutions were unanimously adopted ; 
and in accordance with the last resolution, the House (at four o'clock 
and ten minutes p. m.) adjourned. 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE SENATE. 



In the Senate, March 26, 1878. 

The Vice-President laid before the Senate the following resolu- 
tion received yesterday from the House of Representatives; which 
was read .• 

Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), 
That a special joint-committee of six Representatives and three Sen- 
ators be appointed to meet the body of Hon. John Edwards Leon- 
ard, late a Representative of Louisiana, upon its arrival at New 
York, and escort it to the place of interment at West Chester, Penn- 
sylvania. 

Resolved, That the Clerk of the House be directed to communi- 
cate this resolution to the Senate. 

Ordered, That Mr. Ellis of Louisiana, Mr. Muller of New York, 
Mr. Turner of Kentucky, Mr. Stewart of Minnesota, Mr. Calkins 
of Indiana, and Mr. Ward of Pennsylvania, be the said committee 
on the part of the House. 

Mr. EusTis. I move that the Senate concur in this resolution, 
and that the President of the Senate be authorized to appoint the 
committee on the part of the Senate for the purpose stated. 

The motion was agreed to. 

The Vice President appointed Mr. Eustis of Louisiana, Mr. 
Saunders of Nebraska, and Mr. Conover of Florida, as such com- 
mittee on the part of the Senate. 



